Holding talks on a redesign of Fife’s health and social care service behind closed doors has caused unnecessary anxiety, it was claimed.
Fife’s health and social care integration joint board was criticised last week for choosing to thrash out options for tackling a projected £11.6m overspend in private.
As councillors tasked with scrutinising how taxpayers’ cash is spent in Fife were refused information yesterday about the proposed changes, those in the know insisted positive developments were taking place.
Councillor Susan Leslie, chair of Fife Council’s education, health and social care scrutiny committee, said: “This has raised people’s levels of anxiety when in actual fact that is not founded.”
The board, which includes members of Fife Council and NHS Fife, voted to exclude the public and press from discussions last week, citing commercial sensitivity and concerns that publicising discussions could cause anxiety among staff.
It is responsible for services including home care, managing delayed discharges and community health services and was asked to look at potential savings and investments including changes to models of care.
Mrs Leslie voiced concern that the scrutiny committee was unable to fulfil its function with the information available but it was agreed it will be given a briefing on the impact of changes already in the public domain.
She said: “We need to put this committee in possession of enough knowledge to perform its role.
“It’s important that members round this table appreciate the consequences of not meeting our savings target.
“Fife Council would end up having to put more money into the integrated joint board budget if these savings are not made.”
Changes already implemented were preventing people staying in hospital longer than necessary, she said.
“We do need to look at the positives.
“That is one of the reasons I would like to see the background information shared so people can see the changes and improvements in care we hope to see coming forward.”
Councillor Bill Brown claimed the committee was being “kept in the dark” regarding the spending of a “substantial amount of money”.
He said: “We are supposed to be able to scrutinise this and we can’t scrutinise it at the moment because we don’t have enough information.”
Health and social care director Sandy Riddell told the committee he would not be happy to go through all the savings proposals at this stage but agreed to provide a briefing for its next meeting later this month.
He said: “I think that you would find it very reassuring to hear about the range of things we are doing.”
Board chair Councillor Andrew Rodger defended the decision to hold the meeting behind closed doors, stating there was “no hidden agenda”, and pointed out that councillors were entitled to attend private meetings of the board.
He added: “The different models of care we are going to put in place are going to make a difference to the people of Fife but we do have to meet challenges.
“There will be certain people who need to go into a care home but a lot of people don’t.
“We are putting more money into social work assessment in hospitals so we can make sure people are getting the right care and appropriate care.”
